Cooking apparatus

ABSTRACT

A cooking apparatus that is capable of effectively cooling a heat reflecting unit without increasing a temperature thereof, thereby preventing oil dropped onto the heat reflecting unit from being burnt. The cooking apparatus includes a grill unit disposed on a body of the cooking apparatus, a plurality of heating units mounted at sides of an interior of the body while being inclined toward the grill unit, and a heat reflecting unit disposed under the grill unit in the body. The heat reflecting unit includes a pair of partitions disposed in the longitudinal direction thereof while being opposite to the heating units, respectively, such that an interior of the heat reflecting unit is partitioned into a pair of side channels and a central channel by the partitions. The cooking apparatus further comprises cooling fans mounted in front of the side channels, respectively, to cool the heat reflecting unit.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No.2005-4717, filed on Jan. 18, 2005 in the Korean Intellectual PropertyOffice, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a cooking apparatus, and moreparticularly, to a cooking apparatus that is capable of effectivelycooling a heat reflection unit to reflect heat generated from a heatingunit to a grill unit.

2. Description of the Related Art

Generally, a cooking apparatus to cook in a grill-cooking mannerincluding a heating member to directly apply heat to food to be cookedand a grill member on which the food is placed such that the food isexposed to the heating member. In such a cooking apparatus, heatgenerated from the heating member is directly transmitted to the food tobe cooked on the grill member, to thereby cook the food.

When food is directly heated, the food is very tasty. For this reason,people enjoy cooking meat, such as beef, pork or chicken, in agrill-cooking manner.

In order to cook meat, such as beef, pork or chicken, in a grill-cookingmanner, appropriate sized pieces of meat marinated in sauce made ofvarious seasonings are placed on the grill member. When the pieces ofmeat marinated in sauce are heated by heat transmitted from the heatingmember, the sauce applied to the pieces of meat or oil of the meatitself falls.

Also, the heating member is not disposed directly under the grill memberto prevent the heating member from being contaminated by oil and saucedropped from the food. As a result, heat from the heating member is noteffectively transmitted to the food placed on the grill member, andtherefore, heat efficiency is lowered.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, a new type of cookingapparatus has been proposed, which is disclosed in Korean UnexaminedPatent Publication No. 2004-71023, assigned to the assignee of thepresent application. The proposed cooking apparatus includes a grillmember disposed on a body, a pair of heating members mounted at sides ofthe body under the grill member while being inclined, and a heatreflecting member disposed directly under the grill member, whereby someof the heat generated from the heating members is transmitted directlyto the grill member, and the remainder of the heat is reflected by theheat reflecting member and then transmitted to the grill member so as toeffectively cook the food in a grill-cooking manner.

In the proposed cooking apparatus, oil collection grooves are providedat the upper surface of the heat reflecting member to collect oil andsauce (hereinafter, referred to as “oil”) dropped from the food beingcooked on the grill member, and a cooling fan is mounted in the heatreflecting member to prevent oil on the heat reflecting member frombeing burnt.

In the conventional cooking apparatus, however, the heat reflectingmember is cooled only by a single cooling fan, and a channel to guidecooling air is not provided in the heat reflecting member. As a result,the heat reflecting member is not effectively cooled.

Both sides of the heat reflecting member are positioned closer to theheating member than the center of the heating reflecting member. As aresult, temperature is locally increased at the heat reflecting member,and therefore, oil dropped onto both sides of the heat reflecting membermay be burnt into smoke.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, it is an aspect of the present invention to provide acooking apparatus capable of effectively cooling a heat reflecting unitwithout increasing a temperature thereof, thereby preventing oil droppedonto the heat reflecting unit from being burnt.

Additional aspects and/or advantages of the invention will be set forthin part in the description which follows and, in part, will be apparentfrom the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.

The foregoing and/or other aspects of the present invention are achievedby providing a cooking apparatus including a body, a grill unit disposedon the body, a plurality of heating units mounted at sides of aninterior of the body, facing the grill unit, and a heat reflecting unitdisposed under the grill unit in the body, to reflect heat generatedfrom the heating units to the grill unit, wherein the heat reflectingunit has a pair of cooling fans mounted therein to enable air to flowalong side surfaces thereof adjacent to the respective heating units.

The heat reflecting unit includes two side plates and a rear plate, afront part having a predetermined space formed therein, and a heatreflecting plate including a pair of first reflecting surfaces extendingfrom upper ends of the side plates while being inclined downward,respectively, and a pair of second reflecting surfaces extending fromlower ends of the first reflecting surfaces while being inclined upward,respectively, until the upper ends of the second reflecting surfacesmeet each other, and wherein the cooling fans are disposed to forciblyblow air toward the respective first reflecting surfaces.

The heat reflecting unit further includes a pair of partitions topartition the first reflecting surfaces from the second reflectingsurfaces, respectively, and two side channels to allow air forciblyblown by the respective cooling fans to flow from a front to a rear ofthe heat reflecting unit along the sides thereof, respectively, and acentral channel to allow the air to flow from the rear to the front ofthe heat reflecting unit along a center thereof.

Each of the cooling fans is mounted in a fan casing having an inlet portformed at an upper part thereof and an outlet port formed at a rear partthereof, and wherein a front part of the fan casing includes a pluralityof suction holes formed at sides of an upper surface thereof, and aplurality of discharge holes formed at a center of the front surfacethereof, whereby air is introduced through the upper surface of thefront part to cool the heat reflecting plate and then discharged throughthe front surface of the front part.

The body includes a plurality of communication holes formed at the upperpart of the front surface thereof, the communication holes communicatingwith the suction holes such that air is introduced into the suctionholes through the communication holes in a front part of the body.

Each of the cooling fans may be a centrifugal fan. However, the type offan is not limited hereto, and any suitable type of fan recognized byone skilled in the art may be utilized

The body includes a front opening formed at the front surface thereof,through which the heat reflecting unit is released from/mounted into thebody in a sliding fashion, and wherein a bottom of the bodycorresponding to the front part of the heat reflecting unit is openedsuch that air circulated through the interior of the heat reflectingunit is also discharged through the lower part of the front part.

The cooking apparatus further includes recesses formed between the firstreflecting surfaces and the second reflecting surfaces, respectively, bythe inclined structure of the first reflecting surfaces and the secondreflecting surfaces, the recesses serve as oil collection parts tocollect oil dropped from food placed on the grill unit.

It is another aspect of the present invention to provide a cookingapparatus including a body, a grill unit disposed on the body, aplurality of heating units mounted at sides of an interior of the bodywhile being inclined toward the grill unit, and a heat reflecting unitdisposed under the grill unit in the body, wherein the heat reflectingunit includes a pair of partitions disposed in a longitudinal directionthereof while being opposite to the heating units, respectively, suchthat an interior of the heat reflecting unit is partitioned into a pairof side channels and a central channel by the partitions, and thecooking apparatus further includes cooling fans mounted in front of theside channels, respectively, to cool the heat reflecting unit.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and/or other aspects and advantages of the invention will becomeapparent and more readily appreciated from the following description ofthe embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings ofwhich:

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a cooking apparatus accordingto an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an assembled perspective view of the cooking apparatus shownin FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along the line III-III of FIG. 1,illustrating each pair of cooling fans and partitioning plates mountedto a heat reflecting unit; and

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along the line IV-IV of FIG. 2,illustrating the rear surface of the heat reflecting unit partitionedinto two side channels and a central channel by the pair of partitioningplates.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Reference will now be made in detail to embodiments of the presentinvention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to the like elementsthroughout. The embodiments are described below to explain the presentinvention by referring to the figures.

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a cooking apparatus accordingto the present invention, and FIG. 2 is an assembled perspective view ofthe cooking apparatus according to the present invention.

In FIG. 1, the cooking apparatus comprises a body 10 formed in the shapeof a box and having an upper opening 11 and a front opening 12, aplurality of heating units 30 mounted at sides of the body 10 togenerate heat necessary to cook food, a grill unit 20 disposed on thebody 10 to allow the food to be placed thereon, and a heat reflectingunit 40 disposed under the grill unit 20 in the body 10 to reflectradiant heat emitted from the heating units 30 to the grill unit 20.

The heating units 30 are disposed at sides of an interior of the body 10out of the upper opening 11 in a horizontal direction (i.e.,front-to-back direction) such that oil dropped from the food placed onthe grill unit 20 is not attached to the heating units 30, and theheating units 30 are inclined toward the grill unit 20 to effectivelytransmit heat to the food.

The grill unit 20 includes a pair of water buckets 21 spaced apart fromeach other such that the water buckets 21 are located on seats 13respectively provided at sides of an upper surface of the body 10,respectively, and configured to store water therein, and a plurality ofgrill pipes 22, each grill pipe having ends connected with the waterbuckets 21, respectively, such that the grill pipes 22 are filled withwater.

The heat reflecting unit 40 includes two side plates 41 and a rear plate42, a front part 43 having a predetermined space formed therein, and aheat reflecting plate 44 defined by the side plates 41, the rear plate42 and the front part 43.

The heat reflecting plate 44 includes a pair of first reflectingsurfaces 44 a extending from upper ends of the side plates 41 whilebeing inclined downward, respectively, and a pair of second reflectingsurfaces 44 b extending from lower ends of the first reflecting surfaces44 a while being inclined upward, respectively, until the upper ends ofthe second reflecting surfaces 44 b meet each other. As a result, theheat reflecting plate 44 is of a shape of a “W”.

Specifically, each first reflecting surface 44 a is inclined downwardfrom the lower end of the corresponding heating unit 30, and each secondreflecting surface 44 b is inclined upward from the lower end of thecorresponding first reflecting surface 44 a until each second reflectingsurface 44 b reaches a middle position between the heating unit 30, soas to reflect heat generated from the heating units 30 to the grill unit20.

Also, recesses between the first reflecting surfaces 44 a and the secondreflecting surfaces 44 b facing the first reflecting surfaces 44 a areused as oil collection parts 45 to collect oil dropped from the foodplaced on the grill unit 20 onto the first and second reflectingsurfaces 44 a and 44 b.

In order to prevent a temperature of the heat reflecting unit 40 frombeing increased above a predetermined level due to heat transmitted fromthe heating units 30, and thus, to prevent oil dropped onto the heatreflecting unit 44 from being burnt, a pair of cooling fans 50 aremounted in the front part 43 of the heat reflecting unit 40 while beinglocated in fan casings 51, respectively, and a pair of partitions 60 aredisposed vertically at the lower surface of the heat reflecting plate 44in the longitudinal direction of the heat reflecting unit 40 (see FIG.4).

In order to introduce air outside the body 10 to the cooling fans 50mounted in the heat reflecting unit 40, a plurality of communicationholes 55 are formed at the upper part of the front surface and the frontpart of the upper surface of the body 10, and a plurality of suctionholes 56 are provided at sides of the upper surface of the front part 43of the heat reflecting unit 40 facing the respective cooling fans 50.

Also, a plurality of discharge holes 57 are formed at the front surfaceof the front part 43 of the heat reflecting unit 40, to discharge airforcibly moved at the rear surface of the heat reflecting unit 40 by thecooling fans 50, to cool the heat reflecting unit 40 of the body 10.

Consequently, external air is introduced to the upper surface of thefront part 43 of the heat reflecting unit 40 through the front and upperparts of the body 10 to cool the heat reflecting unit 40, and thendischarged through the front surface of the front part 43.

In order to quickly discharge air circulated through the heat reflectingunit 40, and to prevent air circulated through the heat reflecting unit40 from being reintroduced to the cooling fans 50, the bottom 14 of thebody 10 corresponding to the front part 43 of the heat reflecting unit40 is opened, and therefore, air circulated through the interior of theheat reflecting unit 40 is also discharged through the lower part of thefront part 43.

In order to extend/retract the heat reflecting unit 40 from/into thebody 10 through the front opening 12 in the horizontal direction suchthat the heat reflecting unit 40 is released from/mounted in the body10, a grip 46 is formed at the front part 43 of the heat reflecting unit40 while being protruded frontward.

Accordingly, as shown in FIG. 2, when a user holds the grip 46 of theheat reflecting unit 40 and pushes the heat reflecting unit 40 into thebody 10 through the front opening 12 in a sliding fashion, the heatreflecting unit 40 is easily mounted in the body 10. In this state, thegrill unit 30 is placed to the upper surface of the body 10 such thatfood is cooked in a grill-cooking manner.

The heat reflecting unit cooling structure will be described hereinafterwith reference to FIG. 3, which is a sectional view taken along the lineIII-III of FIG. 1, and FIG. 4, which is a sectional view taken along theline IV-IV of FIG. 2.

As shown in FIG. 1, the pair of cooling fans 50 are mounted in the frontpart 43 of the heat reflecting unit 40 while being surrounded by the fancasings 51, respectively. Each fan casing 51 comprising an inlet port 51a formed at the upper part thereof and an outlet port 51 b formed atrear part thereof. Each cooling fan 50 may be of a centrifugal fan,which suctions air through the upper part of each fan casing 51 anddischarges air through the rear part of each fan casing 51.

The pair of partitions 60, which are disposed vertically at the lowersurface of the heat reflecting plate 44, extend along the lines at whichthe first reflecting surfaces 44 a meet the corresponding secondreflecting surfaces 44 b. The rear ends of the partitions 60 are spacedapart from the rear plate 42 of the heat reflecting unit 40.

At the lower surface of the heat reflecting plate 44 are formed a pairof side channels 61 and a central channel 62, which communicate with oneanother at the rear end of the heat reflecting plate 44, by thepartitions 60. Each fan casing 51, in which the corresponding coolingfan 50 is mounted, is disposed in front of the corresponding sidechannel 61 while the outlet port 51 b faces the corresponding sidechannel 61.

Consequently, air forcibly blown by the respective cooling fans 50 andhaving flowed along the side channels 61 meet at the rear end of theheat reflecting plate 44, where a flow direction of the air is changed,and the air then flows along the central channel 62.

Here, the cooling fans 50 may be designed such that the cooling fans 50are automatically operated or stopped based on whether the cookingapparatus is operated or not. Alternatively, temperature sensors 70 maybe attached to the lower surface of the heat reflecting plate 44 suchthat the cooling fans 50 are automatically operated when the temperatureof the heat reflecting plate 44 increases to a level high enough to burnoil on the heat reflecting plate 44 and the cooling fans 50 areautomatically stopped when the temperature of the heat reflecting plate44 decreases to a level low enough not to burn oil on the heatreflecting plate 44.

When the user puts food to be cooked in a grill-cooking manner on thegrill pipes 22 and operates the heating units 30 and the cooling fans50, to cook the food using the cooking apparatus according to anembodiment of the present invention, some of the heat generated from theheating units 30 is directly transmitted to the food, and the remainderof the heat is reflected to the food by the first reflecting surfaces 44a and the second reflecting surfaces 44 b, to thereby cook the food.While the food is cooked as described above, oil drops from the foodonto the first reflecting surfaces 44 a and the second reflectingsurfaces 44 b, and is then collected in the oil collection parts 45.

At this time, external air is introduced into the front part 43 of theheat reflecting unit 40 through the communication holes 55 formed at theupper part of the front surface and the front part of the upper surfaceof the body 10 and the suction holes 56 provided at sides of the uppersurface of the front part 43 of the heat reflecting unit 40. Theintroduced air passes through the respective fan casings 51, and thenflows to the rear of the heat reflecting unit 40 along the side channels61 to cool the respective first reflecting surfaces 44 a of the heatreflecting plate 44 adjacent to the respective heating units 30.

The air having passed through the respective side channels 61 isgathered at the rear end of the heat reflecting unit 40, where the flowdirection of the air is changed, and then flows forward along thecentral channel 62 to cool the second reflecting surfaces 44 b of theheat reflecting plate 44.

Some of the air having passed through the central channel 62 isdischarged out of the body 10 through the discharge holes 57 formed atthe front surface of the front part 43 of the heat reflecting unit 40,and the remainder of the air is discharged out of the body 10 throughthe lower part of the front part 43.

External air continuously circulates in the heat reflecting unit 40along the above-mentioned channels to cool the heat reflecting unit 40.

The communication holes 55 provided at the body 10 to introduce externalair are spaced an appropriate distance from the discharge holes 57provided at the front surface of the heat reflecting unit 40 todischarge circulated air out of the body 10. Consequently, airdischarged through the discharge holes 57 is not reintroduced throughthe communication holes 55. Also, the inlet ports 51 a of the fancasings 51 are close to the suction holes 56 provided at the uppersurface of the front part 43 of the heat reflecting unit 40, andtherefore, air having flowed from the central channel 62 to the frontpart 43 is not reintroduced to the cooling fan 50.

The external air flows along both sides of the heat reflecting unit 40and then flows along the center of the heat reflecting unit 40 by thecooling fans 50 and the partitions 60. As a result, a sufficient amountof air is uniformly supplied to the entire surface of the heatreflecting unit 40, and therefore, the heat reflecting unit 40 iseffectively cooled.

Especially, temperature of the first reflecting surfaces 44 a of theheat reflecting unit 40 adjacent to the heating units 30 may be locallyincreased to a higher level than that of the second reflecting surfaces44 b of the heat reflecting unit 40 away from the heating units 30.However, external air flows along the first reflecting surfaces 44 a,and then flows along the second reflecting surfaces 44 b. Consequently,temperature of the first reflecting surfaces 44 a is prevented fromlocally increasing, and therefore, oil is prevented from being burnt dueto the local increase of temperature at the first reflecting surfaces 44a.

As apparent from the above description, a pair of partitions aredisposed in the heat reflecting unit in the longitudinal directionthereof to partition the interior of the heat reflecting unit into apair of side channels and a central channel, and the cooling fans aremounted in front of the side channels, respectively. As a result, theheat reflecting unit is effectively cooled without increasing thetemperature thereof, and therefore, oil dropped onto the heat reflectingunit is prevented from being burnt. Consequently, the present inventionhas the effect of cooking food in a pleasant state and quickly cleaningthe heat reflecting unit.

Although a few embodiments of the present invention have been shown anddescribed, it would be appreciated by those skilled in the art thatchanges may be made in this embodiment without departing from theprinciples and spirit of the invention, the scope of which is defined inthe claims and their equivalents.

1. A cooking apparatus comprising: a body; a grill unit disposed on thebody; a plurality of heating units mounted at sides of an interior ofthe body, facing the grill unit; and a heat reflecting unit disposedunder the grill unit in the body, to reflect heat generated from theheating units to the grill unit, wherein the heat reflecting unitcomprises a pair of cooling fans mounted therein to enable air to flowalong the side surfaces thereof adjacent to the respective heatingunits.
 2. The cooking apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the heatreflecting unit comprises: side plates and a rear plate; a front parthaving a predetermined space formed therein; and a heat reflecting platecomprising a pair of first reflecting surfaces extending from upper endsof the side plates while being inclined downward, respectively, and apair of second reflecting surfaces extending from lower ends of thefirst reflecting surfaces while being inclined upward, respectively,until the upper ends of the second reflecting surfaces meet each other,and wherein the cooling fans are disposed to forcibly blow air towardthe respective first reflecting surfaces.
 3. The cooking apparatusaccording to claim 2, wherein the heat reflecting unit furthercomprises: a pair of partitions to partition the first reflectingsurfaces from the second reflecting surfaces, respectively, and whereinthe heat reflecting unit comprises two side channels to allow airforcibly blown by the respective cooling fans to flow from a front to arear of the heat reflecting unit along sides thereof, respectively, anda central channel to allow the air to flow from the rear to the front ofthe heat reflecting unit along a center thereof.
 4. The cookingapparatus according to claim 2, further comprising: a plurality of fancasings, wherein each of the cooling fans is mounted in a respective fancasing; and each fan casing comprising an inlet port formed at an upperpart thereof and an outlet port formed at a rear part thereof, andwherein the front part includes a plurality of suction holes formed atboth sides of the upper surface thereof, and a plurality of dischargeholes formed at a center of the front surface thereof, wherein air isintroduced through the upper surface of the front part, to cool the heatreflecting plate and the air is then discharged through the frontsurface of the front part.
 5. The cooking apparatus according to claim4, wherein the body comprises a plurality of communication holes formedat the upper part of the front surface thereof, and the communicationholes communicating with the suction holes such that the air isintroduced into the suction holes through the communication holes infront of the body.
 6. The cooking apparatus according to claim 4,wherein each of the cooling fans is of a centrifugal fan.
 7. The cookingapparatus according to claim 3, wherein the body comprises a frontopening formed at the front surface thereof, through which the heatreflecting unit is slidably released from/mounted into the body, andwherein a bottom of the body corresponding to the front part of the heatreflecting unit, is opened such that air circulated through an interiorof the heat reflecting unit is discharged through a lower part of thefront part.
 8. The cooking apparatus according to claim 2, furthercomprising: recesses formed between the first reflecting surfaces andthe second reflecting surfaces, respectively, by the inclined structureof the first reflecting surfaces and the second reflecting surfaces, therecesses serving as oil collection parts to collect oil dropped fromfood placed on the grill unit.
 9. A cooking apparatus comprising: abody; a grill unit disposed on the body; a plurality of heating unitsmounted at sides of an interior of the body while being inclined towardthe grill unit; a heat reflecting unit disposed under the grill unit inthe body, wherein the heat reflecting unit comprises a pair ofpartitions disposed in the longitudinal direction thereof while beingopposite to the heating units, respectively, such that an interior ofthe heat reflecting unit is partitioned into a pair of side channels anda central channel by the partitions; and cooling fans mounted in frontof the side channels, respectively, to cool the heat reflecting unit.10. The cooking apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the heatreflecting unit has a plurality of suction holes, which are providedabove the cooling fans, and the heat reflecting unit has a plurality ofdischarge holes formed at the center of the front surface thereof. 11.The cooking apparatus according to claim 10, further comprising: oilcollection parts provided at the sides of the upper surface of the heatreflecting unit to collect oil dropped from food placed on the grillunit.
 12. The cooking apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:temperature sensors attached at a lower surface of the heat reflectingunit to sense the temperature of the heat reflecting unit, wherein thecooling fans automatically operate when the temperature of the heatreflecting unit increases above the predetermined level.
 13. The cookingapparatus of claim 9, further comprising: temperature sensors attachedat a lower surface of the heat reflecting unit to sense the temperatureof the heat reflecting unit, wherein the cooling fans automaticallyoperate when the temperature of the heat reflecting unit increases abovethe predetermined level.